Electronic aids

F1 has seen the development, then banning, then reintroduction of driver aids in the last 20 years. For 2007, both traction control and launch control are allowed. However in 2008 these will once again be banned.

Traction control (TC) uses electronics to prevent wheelspin. With 750 hp on tap, F1 cars can easily spin their rear wheels into big smoky clouds. You can see one of the Renaults in the second spot on grid doing exactly that. However, burning rubber isn't the fastest way down the track. To prevent this, there are magnetic sensors on each wheel hub. These sensors detect how fast each wheel on the car is spinning. If one of the rear wheels begins to spin faster than the other wheels, the electronics will cut spark to one or more cylinders of the engine, briefly reducing power and allowing the tires to regain traction. From a driver's perspective, it is not as important to smoothly apply throttle coming out of turns; they can floor it and let the TC work for them. The amount of TC can be controlled by the driver from the steering wheel. The TC can also be disabled via a steering wheel button to allow the driver to spin the car, which is necessary if the car has spun and is facing backwards on the track.

Launch control. The start of an F1 race is always a standing start, meaning the cars start from a standstill. Launch control works similar to TC in that it determines the optimal amount of slip for the best start and modulates the power to achieve that.

Rear differential. In an F1 car the rear differential is hydraulically controlled and adjustable by the driver. A rear differential serves several purposes. First, it takes a single spinning input (the driveshaft from the transmission) and converts it into two spinning outputs (the half-shafts) that feed to each rear wheel. The differential also allows the two rear wheels to turn at different speeds relative to each other. This is necessary since the outside wheel in a corner must turn faster than the inside wheel. Finally, the differential also limits the amount of speed difference between the two wheels under both acceleration and deceleration. This limit or locking-effect is called 'limited-slip'. On American muscle cars it was often called Posi-traction.

The F1 driver can adjust the amount of locking via a knob on the steering wheel which varies the hydraulics in the differential. Some drivers will adjust this from corner to corner. However, the differential cannot be automatically controlled; it must be adjusted only by the driver.








Antilock braking (ABS) is banned in F1. When braking, the tires can 'lock up' when excessive pressure is applied. The brakes squeeze the brake rotor so hard that the wheel literally stops rotating. This appears as a stopped wheel and a puff of smoke as the stopped and sliding tire burns. As mentioned above, tires do not work their best when they are smoking!


An ABS system works very similar to the TC system, and in fact uses the exact same magnetic sensors to detect when a wheel is stopped. When this happens, the ABS computer instructs a valve in the braking system to open for a fraction of a second, releasing the brake pressure on the locked wheel. This release of brake force allows the tire to resume rolling and regain traction. If you've ever panic-braked in a modern car and felt the brake pedal pulse, you engaged the ABS. Those pulses are the rapid opening and closing of the brake valves.

Contrary to some people's belief, any good modern ABS system will out-perform any non-ABS system, no matter who the driver. This is not only because the computer can react faster, but also because it can control all four wheels independently. However, since ABS is banned, its up to the driver's own reflexes to push the brakes to just below the point of lock-up, and rapidly modulate pressure when a wheel locks up. Some drivers can even emulate a form of ABS by modulating the brake pressure up to five times a second. The drivers can adjust the brake pressure bias from front to rear via a bias bar in the cockpit. This allows them to put more brake pressure up front for more aggressive braking, or adjust bias to compensate for tire wear during the race. However, the bias cannot be adjusted left to right, which could be used for faster turn-in entering corners.